Sapphire Announces NM Algae Farm Phase 1 Completion

apphire Energy has announced the first phase of its Green Crude Farm – the world’s first commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility – is now operational in Columbus, New Mexico. Construction of this first phase, which began on June 1, 2011, was completed on time and cunhanfeminista.org.br on budget, according to the company.

Today, the cultivation area consists of some of the largest algae ponds ever built with groupings of http://isaacs.ie/cheap-viagra 1.1 acre and 2.2 acre ponds – which are 1/8 of a mile long. The initial phase also includes all the necessary mechanical and processing equipment to harvest and extract algae and recycle water for the 300-acre Green Crude Farm.

At full completion the facility will produce 1.5 million gallons per year of crude oil and consist of approximately 300 acres of algae cultivation ponds and processing facilities. By reaching this milestone, Sapphire representatives said, they are on http://blu.edu.vn/cialis-mail-order target to make algae-based Green Crude a viable alternative fuel solution capable of significantly reducing the nation’s need for foreign crude oil, and will serve as the blueprint for scalable algae biofuel facilities globally.

The Green Crude Farm, also known as an Integrated Algal Bio-Refinery, was funded with both private and cialis online usa public funds, including $85 million in private investment from Sapphire Energy, backed by a USDA loan guarantee and a $50 million grant from the US DOE.

In March the first inoculation of ponds with algae took place and a series of “shakedown” tests began to ensure that all systems were working as planned. Today, the farming operations are exceeding Sapphire Energy’s internal productivity goals in terms of http://congbetham.org/viagra-perscription-online biomass yield, demonstrating that large-scale cultivation is possible and much larger cultivation systems can be implemented with the price of levitra in canada proper agronomic processes in place. The company harvested its first crop in June without any system difficulties and has since harvested 21 million gallons of algae biomass totaling 81 million tons. Next, the Green Crude Farm is preparing to transition its operations to panorender.com a winter variety of algae while continuous cultivation, harvest and extraction activities continue.

“Bringing our Green Crude Farm online is not only an important accomplishment for Sapphire Energy, but a critical step toward a viable alternative energy future,” said Cynthia ‘CJ’ Warner, CEO and chairman of Sapphire Energy. “What was once a concept is thegainesgroup.com now becoming a reality and model for growing algae to make a renewable crude oil for energy. We look forward to sharing our progress as the Green Crude Farm moves to its next stage.”

Sapphire Energy partnered with AMEC Project Engineering, who coordinated with 16 New Mexico based contractors, to complete the first phase of the Green Crude Farm during 12 months of active construction. As of today, Phase One of the project has reached the following milestones:

Construction: Completed on time and on budget

Unit Operations: Conducting all united operations, including cultivation, harvest and extraction in a continuous process

Sapphire will continue to conduct “shakedown” testing, as well as operate and expand farming operations over the winter, as the facility is commissioned into 2013. By the end of realsimplephotography.net 2014, the company projects that the Green Crude Farm will produce 100 barrels of Green Crude per day. The commercial demonstration project is expected to prove “commercial” techno-economics, and Sapphire’s commercial scale Green Crude facility.